Planning a Spokane Company Holiday Party? Start in October

If you have been handed the company holiday party and it is currently autumn, you are not early. You are roughly on time, and only just.

Here is how the Spokane and Coeur d'Alene calendar actually works.

The real timeline

  • Now through mid-October: venues for the first two weeks of December are still available. This is when good dates get taken.
  • Late October: the popular Friday and Saturday slots are gone. You are choosing from Thursdays and mid-December.
  • November: caterers and decorators are quoting around existing bookings. Prices firm up, options narrow.
  • Late November: you are taking what is left, and paying for the privilege.

The first two weeks of December are the single busiest stretch of our year, and we are not unusual in that. Every vendor in this city is competing for the same fourteen days.

Lock these in this order

  1. The date. Everything else follows it. A Thursday in early December beats a Saturday in late December for both availability and attendance.
  2. The venue. Capacity and catering rules constrain everything downstream.
  3. Food. The thing people complain about if it is wrong.
  4. Decor. Which is us, and which needs three to four weeks.

What actually makes a corporate party feel expensive

Not the budget. Three specific things:

The entrance. People form their opinion of the evening in the first six seconds, before anyone has spoken to them. A dressed entrance changes the whole read of a room that is otherwise just a rented hall.

Somewhere to take a photo. Every party generates photos whether you plan for them or not. Plan for them and the photos are of a designed wall instead of a fire exit.

Getting the palette right. Red and green photograph flat and cheap under event lighting. Deep evergreen with warm gold, or winter white with chrome and champagne, photograph like money. It costs the same.

Budget, honestly

  • Entrance installation — from $500
  • Entrance plus photo wall — from $900
  • Entrance, stage and room accents — from $1,200
  • Full ballroom transformation — $2,000+, quoted after a walkthrough

If the budget is smaller than that, say so. We would rather build two things properly than spread a small number thinly across a big room — and we will tell you which two.

The thing most companies forget

Teardown. Somebody has to strike the room, usually at eleven at night, usually the person who organised the whole thing. We remove everything we installed, so that person is not you.

If you are running it every year

Ask about a standing account. We keep your file — the venue, the palette, what worked, what the CEO did not like — and next year is one phone call. We can also fold in appreciation week, milestones and your lobby or storefront display on one monthly invoice.

Corporate holiday party decor · Employee appreciation · Request a December quote

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